“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of the children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half a million bushels of wheat…. This is no a way of life at all, in any true sense.”
US President ‘Ike’ Eisenhower (1953)
The poor among us transcend all national and cultural boundaries. Yet, they are considered to be of far less significance than futile wars around the world fought in the name of Allah or as “the war on terrorism” or whatever cause that drives paranoid, egotistical world leaders.
But here are the facts:
Of the about 6.5 billion people in the world today…
About 852 million people are hungry- the most extreme form of poverty. Billions now face the grim spectre of starvation in the face of the current global food crisis.
About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five.
About 640 million children do not have adequate shelter.
About 400 million children do not have access to safe water.
About 90 million children are severely food-deprived.
In the developing world, more than 1.2 billion people(over 1\6th of the world population)currently live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1 per day.
In developing countries, 6 million children die each year, mostly from hunger-related causes.
Even in the US, considered to be among the wealthiest countries in the world, 36 million people are believed to be living under the poverty line and of this number, 3 1/2 million are homeless, living in the streets.
Every day across the world we are confronted with hunger, poverty, malnutrition, inadequate drinking water and poor sanitation, no basic health care, illiteracy, slavery and other social ills.
At the same time the global military expenditure has overtaken the 1,000 billion dollar mark! Some have even estimated that in the final calculation, the US bill for the current war in Iraq could surpass one trillion dollars.
Governments and leaders across international borders are spending of billions of dollars per month for arms and saber-rattling gestures while children go hungry for a piece of bread and a cup of water. Is this really happening in our world?
We, the people must challenge this madness and demand that they change their priorities. Besides the financial wastefulness of militarism, overall it exacts a huge toll on human life and the environment, while creating a climate of fear and mistrust and undermining global security. The US and UK are in many ways part of the problem, being the highest and second-highest military spenders in the world. The intensification of the “war on terror” has led military spending – after a short decline after the end of the Cold War – back to the old unacceptable high levels. The US alone are spending over 500 billion dollars per year on their military programmes, and this does not include the costs of the Iraq war. Yet, more people in the US die of poverty-related diseases, lifestyles or incidents per year than were killed in the 911 tragedy. Time to think people. Something is not right.
Less-developed and third world countries are now taking pattern from wealthier states and one needs to look no further than the African continent or India and Pakistan for validation on this argument. Of the one billion people in India, 1/3 live in absolute poverty yet both governments are spending billions of dollars per year to sustain a nuclear weapon programme against each other that serves no real purpose given the dynamics of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
The trigger-ready situation in high-risk Middle East regions is alarming and borders on a kind of madness which must be rooted in demonic realms despite its justification in the name of “God”.
The five members of the UN Security Council – the US, Russia, China, France and Great Britain are the official nuclear states, and though they committed themselves to nuclear disarmament in the Non-Proliferation-Treaty Conference in the year 2000, they are doing nothing about it. Instead, they are developing prototypes of new nuclear arms which ultimately find their way into the hands of unstable leaders like Mahmoud Ahamadinejad. They have also been the 5 leading suppliers of conventional arms to developing countries in the last 10 years.
Why are we giving so much priority to militarism?
Is it a primal fear or a deep-rooted corporate greed and cronyism that drives this collective descent into war games and imminent global destruction.
Should ordinary folks just sit by and leave “everything in the hands of our leaders” or should we practice our democratic right to demand a voice in the running of our country and the world. Are we content to be sheeple, dumbed down by entertainment news, pornography, consumerism and everything else that feed our escapist lifestyles? Or should we speak out and show ourselves to be people who still have a conscience and a connection to common sense, compassion and brotherly love.
In 1987, when military spending had rocketed to unacceptably high levels, The UN Conference on Disarmament and
Development concluded that “the world can either continue to pursue the arms race with characteristic vigour – or move consciously and with deliberate speed towards a more stable and balanced social and economic development within a more sustainable international economic and political order; it cannot do both”.
What will it be people? The policy makers and global elites may have the money and influence to continue creating a war-driven global dynamic that sacrifices the innocent and vulnerable at the altar of greed, ego and fear. But as the common people, we have the heart, conscience and collective power to stop the madness before it goes much further. Speak out through your letters, emails, votes, gatherings and protests in every form. Time is running out.
